2of2FILE - In this Aug. 6, 1999 file photo, Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, right, poses with his defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky during Penn State Media Day at State College, Pa. Pennsylvania state prosecutors said Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, on charges that he sexually abused eight young men. Also, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz, 62, are expected to turn themselves in on Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., on charges of perjury and failure to report under Pennsylvania?s child protective services law in connection with the investigation into the abuse allegations against Sandusky. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis, File)Photo: Paul Vathis

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - On Saturday, March 2, 2002, according to Pennsylvania prosecutors, a Penn State University graduate student went to visit Joe Paterno, the university's legendary football coach. He had a horrific story to tell: The night before, the graduate student had witnessed one of Paterno's former coaches sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in the football facility's showers.

Paterno, according to the prosecutors, did not call the police. Instead, the following day, he had the university's athletic director visit him at his home. According to prosecutors, Paterno told the athletic director of the report regarding the ex-coach, Jerry Sandusky.

The authorities, though, then say nothing about what, if anything, Paterno did in the subsequent days or weeks - whether he followed up on the allegation or whether he ever confronted Sandusky, a man who had worked for him for 32 years and who, even after retiring, had wide access to the university's athletic facilities and students.

What prosecutors do lay out in detail is that Sandusky went on to abuse at least one and perhaps any number of other young boys after Paterno and other senior officials at Penn State learned of the alleged 2002 assault.

Charity connection

Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday and charged with 40 counts of sexually abusing children over the span of 15 years, including his time as an active coach at Penn State. He was specifically accused of having assaulted the young boy in 2002. All the victims were boys Sandusky had come to know through a charity he founded, the Second Mile, for disadvantaged children from troubled families.

On Sunday, Paterno issued a statement insisting that the graduate assistant had not told him of the extent of the alleged sexual assault by Sandusky, only that he had seen something inappropriate involving the ex-coach and the child.

"As Coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at the time, I referred the matter to university administrators," Paterno said in the statement.

"I understand that people are upset and angry, but let's be fair and let the legal process unfold," he said.

University matter

Paterno's son Scott said in an interview Sunday that Paterno never spoke to Sandusky about the allegation, and that he never seriously pursued the question of whether any action had been taken by the university or any other authorities against Sandusky.

"The appropriate people were contacted by Joe. That was the chain of command. It was a retired employee, and it falls under the university's auspices, not the football auspices," Scott Paterno said.

The university's athletic director, Tim Curley, and Gary Schultz, the university's senior vice president for finance and business, have been charged with lying to a grand jury about what they had been told about Sandusky's conduct, and they are expected to surrender to the authorities Monday. Their lawyers have maintained they will be exonerated. Sandusky, through his lawyer, has maintained his innocence.

It appears prosecutors believe that Paterno, whatever his personal sense of obligation to inquire or act further, met his legal requirement in reporting the graduate student's allegation to his direct superior.